We’re All Trading Our Lives for Something. Trade Up.

Written byjoshua becker ·

“This is your life. Are you who you want to be?” – Jonathan Foreman

Our lives are, by definition, made up of finite resources. Each of us has a limited amount of minutes, dollars, and units of energy with which to live our lives. And every passing day presents an opportunity to trade our lives for something else.

Unfortunately, most of our lives are unintentionally traded down… lived in exchange for a return of limited or temporal value. We never set out to purposefully trade our lives for things of limited value; but in a culture surrounded by similar pursuits, our lives conform too easily.

At the very beginning, we trade our lives for…

Security – We invest in our knowledge and skill as a means to earn a living. We choose the lives we will live. We seek the right people to place around us. And we trade our time and talents for a steady paycheck with which to purchase shelter, clothing, food… security – the baseline of our existence. Make no mistake, this is not an unwise trade. Security lays the foundation upon which many of our life’s choices can be built. And I’m all for it.

But it seems, after achieving security, most of us begin pursuing…

Comfort – The essential elements of security: roof, meals, clothing are rarely enough. We pursue comfort to be added to our baseline of security. So we begin trading our time and our paychecks for a bigger home in a nicer neighborhood, a softer couch surrounded by entertainment choices, a nicer car with more features, and trendier clothing that makes us feel a bit more fashionable among our peers. Sometimes we intentionally seek comfort; but most often we do because society makes it appear so attractive.

Luxury – After achieving security and comfort, luxury lurks not so far in the distance. We can see it. We can taste it. It appears overwhelmingly satisfying. And we know what it asks of us: just a few more hours each week at work, a little more research to get it right, and a few more dollars spent at the store. Soon, we begin trading the finite resources of our lives for the luxurious offerings of this world.

Victory – Our minds create a ranking system for the world that we desire to climb. We seek more money, more power, more prestige, more fame than our neighbor, our siblings, our friends, or those we read about in the news. We attempt to prove our worth to ourselves and others by beating out others in this self-constructed competition of life. And before we know it, we’ve soon traded our entire lives to win a competition we have invented in our own minds.

Of course, none of these pursuits exist in a vacuum. Each of them thrive in our hearts alongside a steady stream of pride, greed, fear, and selfishness. These emotions reinforce our decision to pursue comfort, luxury, and victory. As a result, we seek them more desperately. And our lives’ most valuable resources are traded for them.

But the trade is a foolish one.

Our lives hold far greater potential than the comfort and luxury most of us trade them for. After all, these are temporal pursuits that can never be fully achieved. They move and shift rapidly with the world around us. They never fully satisfy. They are completely self-centered. And our lives can be traded for things far greater.

Our lives can be traded for significance, social justice, or spiritual pursuits. We can invest our lives into creating a more sustainable planet, beautiful art, moments of joy for others, or causes we believe in. We can help others overcome fear, heartache, or significant obstacles to joy. We can trade our finite resources for the desires and values held deep within each of our hearts – the purest passions unspoiled by the culture around us.

We were created to live for pursuits far greater than comfort, luxury, and competition. (tweet that)

We were created to trade our lives up, not down.

About Joshua Becker

Writer. Inspiring others to live more by owning less.WSJ Bestselling author of The More of Less.

Comments

Oh I haven’t even made it out of the security area on this list! I would like to advance to comfort…HA… Love your blog I share it all the time! It has helped me over the last few years rid myself of almost a full home of things! Allowed us to move into a much much smaller cabin in the woods and really have clarity! No more busy, no more rush, no more clutter !! Oh I hate clutter now ! Without all the stuff I am more organized and I get to spend more time with my kids not cleaning or tripping over our stuff ahaha!! I thank you and my kids thank you!! My husband doesn’t know he should be thanking you but he should winky winky (cause he can find his socks now!) Thanks!!!

I really love everything about this. Trading our lives for something that is going to give us value long term is not the way people choose to live at the moment. It’s hard to get your mind around it and figure out what is really important to you.

I’ve found that to live the life I really want, I need less money then I originally thought and am able to pursue my dreams. The few things that I trade up for comfort have really decreased and the value of the life I live has increased. Thank you for the amazing read, yet again.

What a brilliant piece. I think the best thing we can do is to share joy with others and enable others. Having luxury items can only make you happy for a little bit; able to help someone in need can bring way more joy and happiness in the long run.

Thank you. I was considering buying a tablet today, for one feature I thought I needed; a luxury feature. Instead, I will hold unto my trusty circa 1990s Palm m515; which continues to run year after year. Oh, more importantly, this advice came just in time as I approach moving from the Luxury phase of life to the next. This advice, a good reminder really, will have an important coloring on that direction.

Great post Joshua!
This is one of a handful of pieces I’ve read over the last few days all highlighting the danger of living a life of comparison and competition. Definitely a message that is resonating with me right now!
Thanks for the work you do.

This is a great article. We live in Newcastle, 150km North of Sydney Australia. I’d like to say it pleases me no end to know so many families who left the rat race of Sydney so they would be able to have children and not have to work full time to pay a mortgage. The average house price here is less than half of the cost in Sydney.

People here slow down and enjoy their families. I am surprised at the number of mothers I have met who have not returned to work after 12 months or more of maternity leave.They continue to live within their means and enjoy their time with their young families.

This is a great article. We live in Newcastle, 150km North of Sydney Australia. I’d like to say it pleases me no end to know so many families who left the rat race of Sydney so they would be able to have children and not have to work full time to pay a mortgage. The average house price here is less than half of the cost in Sydney.

People here slow down and enjoy their families. I am surprised at the number of mothers I have met who have not returned to work after 12 months or more of maternity leave. They continue to live within their means and enjoy their time with their young families.

OK, here goes, something in my heart, is telling me I need to part with more, my heart belongs in a little cabin in door county, only thing I don’t know what to do with is my longaberger baskets. Im not just giving them to charity. But selling stuff seems like huge pain.

OK, here goes, something in my heart, is telling me I need to part with more, my heart belongs in a little cabin in door county, only thing I don’t know what to do with is my longaberger baskets. Im not just giving them to charity. But selling stuff seems like huge pain. Right now I have them boxed up,
This house has plenty of storage, so I can keep extra bedding and dishes, etc. However real possibility that next place will be major downsizing.

Great article!! It makes me question how many of us live our lives in pursuit of meaningless pursuits on autopilot. The question becomes what is the underlining emotion or philosophy behind this pursuit of something so unfulfilling at expense of what is so important. What is at the core of that pursuit?

I love the list at the end! I just wrote a post that detailed many of the points you made in the beginning, using Sripture to help guide our minds toward contentment rather than consumption. However, I really appreciate the practical life applications and purposes you proposed. I will be sharing this on my FB page:)

Wow, this could be made into an excellent sermon, I’ve touched on this theme yesterday (4-29-16) at church, speaking about having the extraordinary life now, derived from John 10:10 where Jesus said; “….. I have come so that they may have ‘life’ and that they may have it more abundant. certainly Jesus was not referring to material possessions,(as some would interpret) that is the least of his concerns.